Crossroads in the Black Aegean

Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora

Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson

A fascinating study of African rewritings of Greek tragedy. The authors ask why the plays of Sophocles' Theban Cycle are so often adapted by dramatists of African descent, and how plays that dilate on the power of the past, in the inexorable curse of Oedipus and the regressive obsession of Antigone, can articulate the postcolonial moment.

Crossroads in the Black Aegean

Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora

Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson

Description

Crossroads in the Black Aegean is a compendious, timely, and fascinating study of African rewritings of Greek tragedy. It consists of detailed readings of six dramas and one epic poem, from different locations across the African diaspora. Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson ask why the plays of Sophocles' Theban Cycle figure so prominently among the tragedies adapted by dramatists of African descent, and how plays that dilate on the power of the past, in the inexorable curse of Oedipus and the regressive obsession of Antigone, can articulate the postcolonial moment. Capitalizing on classical reception studies, postcolonial studies, and comparative literature, Crossroads in the Black Aegean co-ordinates theory and theatre. It crucially investigates how the plays engage
with the 'Western canon', and shows how they use their self-consciously literary status to assert, ironize, and challenge their own place, in relation both to that tradition and to alternative African models of cultural transmission.

Crossroads in the Black Aegean

Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora

Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson

Table of Contents

Introduction: Answering Another Sphinx1. Intersections and Networks2. Back to the Motherland: Ola Rotimi's The Gods are Not to Blame3. Oedipus Rebound: Rita Dove's The Darker Face of the Earth4. The City on the Edge: Lee Breuer's The Gospel at Colonus5. The Wine-Dark Caribbean? Kamau Brathwaite's Odale's Choice and Derek Walcott's Omeros6. No Man's Island: Fugard, Kani, and Ntshona's The Island7. History Sisters: Femi Osofisan's Tegonni: An African Antigone

Crossroads in the Black Aegean

Oedipus, Antigone, and Dramas of the African Diaspora

Barbara Goff and Michael Simpson

Author Information

Barbara Goff is Professor of Classics, Department of Classics, University of Reading. Michael Simpson is Senior Lecturer, Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London.